Bag enclosing re-closing facility



Apnl 22, 1969 F. G. PAXTON BAG ENCLOSING RE-CLOSING FACILITY Original Filed Aug.

FLOYD G. PAXTON.

INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,439,867 BAG ENCLOSING RE-CLOSING FACILITY Floyd G. Paxton, P.0. Box 2098, Yakima, Wash. 98902 Original application Aug. 6, 1965, Ser. No. 477,797, now Patent No. 3,381,442, dated May 7, 1968. Divided and this application Oct. 25, 1967, Ser. No. 682,711

Int. Cl. B65d 33/16, 33/00, 83/00 US. Cl. 229--62 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pillow-type bag formed of thin sheet plastic material such as polyethylene having secured to the inner surface thereof close to an end of the bag assigned for opening the same, a Kwik Lok type reclosure facility which is located entirely inside said bag but is readily available, upon opening this end of the bag as by clipping the seal therefrom, for reclosing the bag after a portion only of the contents thereof have been removed so as to repackage the balance of the contents in the bag.

Cross reference to related application This application is a division carved out of my copending application Ser. No. 477,797 filed Aug. 6, 1965, now Patent Number 3,381,442, on Method of and Apparatus for Making a Bag Enclosing a Reclosing Facility.

Background of the invention A vast amount of dry fluent products are packaged commercially in pillow-type flexible plastic bags which are formed, filled and sealed on a conventional bag packaging machine. This machine draws a continuous web of plastic material from a roll thereof and progressively forms this into a tube, seals one end of this tube, delivers a predetermined quantity of the product through said tube into the sealed end portion thereof, and then seals the tube transversely just above said product and cuts the transverse area just sealed to divide it into lower and upper seals and thus separate the bag just formed from said tube. The first of these seals closes the upper end of the bag just severed from the tube. The second seal closes the lower end of the remainder of the tube in readiness to start another cycle in the bag forming, filling and sealing operations automatically performed repeatedly by said machine.

Summary of the invention When one end of such a bag is snipped oif to open the same and start using the contents thereof, there is often a need for reclosing the bag to prevent the drying out or spoiling of a portion of the product left in the bag.

It is an object of the present invention to provide such a pillow-type plastic bag which will have embodied therewith, and entirely enclosed therewithin, a Kwik Lok type reclosure facility which will be retained near the bag end assigned for opening, and will be readily detachable from the bag, from the inside, after the latter has been opened, for use in reclosing said bag.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a bag wherein the closure facility will not interfere with the formation of or impair in any way the lengthwise and transverse seals employed in the manufacture of the bag.

Brief description of the drawing FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of a preferred embodiment of the pillow-type bag of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1 and illustrates the manner in which a longitudinal Welded seam is formed ice in said bag and the manner in which a reclosure facility is secured to the inner surface of the bag with said facility completely enclosed by the latter.

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the upper end of the aforesaid bag after the upper transverse welded seam thereof has been clipped 01f to open said bag and a portion of the contents removed and the reclosure facility aforesaid has also been removed from the bag and applied to the loose neck portion of the bag to close this and thus preserve the balance of the contents of the bag from exposure.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring specifically to the drawing and particularly to FIGURES 1 and 2, a pillow-type bag 10 is here shown which comprises a preferred embodiment of the bag of the present invention. This bag has a tubular body 11 which is formed from a longitudinal web of flexible plastic material with its side edges wrapped around the longitudinal axis of the bag so as to provide overlapping marginal areas 12 and 13, the first of which is superimposed above the second and the two then united by a heat weld 14 which seals said areas together and converts the aforesaid longitudinal web into said tubular body 11. As with all conventional pillow-type bags, bag 10 has its lower end closed by a heat weld 15 which welds back and front portions of the tubular body 11 together. In a similar manner the upper end of bag 10 is closed by heat Weld 16 after a predetermined amount of loose product 17 has been deposited in said bag so that the weld 16 confines said product.

The manner in which bag 10 departs significantly from the conventional, is in its having afiixed to the inner surface of the tubular body 11 just inside of the upper end of the bag closed by weld 16, and spaced inwardly from the area of said weld, a reclosing facility 18.

In the broader aspect of the present invention, this facility may comprise any of the well known bag closures which embrace, among others, a closure operating by means of a pressure adhesive and a closure comprising a plastic coated wire filament which is twisted about the neck of the bag to close the same, or it may and preferably doe-s comprise a closure of the type known commercially as a Kwik Lok closure which is made of a small, approximately rectangular sheet of fiat polystyrene which is stiff but springy and has an internal bag closing aperture therein which is connected with one edge of the closure by a narrow entrance opening. The application of the Kwik Lok closure to a bag is effected in any of several ways, but when it is done manually, the bag neck is generally bunched together as by twisting, and the two jaws on the opposite sides of the entrance opening of the closure are sprung apart to admit the bag neck between these and into said aperture after which the pressure on the closure is removed so that these jaws spring together and trap the bag neck in said aperture.

Kwik Lok closures are available commercially packed in columns of individual closures or they may be had coiled in multi-closure strip form which is known as Striplok.

Reference is made to the aforementioned copending application for full disclosure of a preferred method and apparatus for the manufacture of the bag 10. As pointed out therein, each of the closures K has an internal bag neck confining aperture 26 which is connected to one edge of the closure by a narrow opening 27 through which the bag neck is admitted to said aperture, this opening providing a pair of opposed jaws 28 on opposite sides thereof which spring together after the bag neck has been inserted into the aperture 26 so as to retain said neck in said aperture.

Each closure K is also provided with one or more spots 29 of adhesive which are susceptible to the application of pressure thereagainst with or without heat to make a tight bond with the element applying such pressure and which in the present invention is preferably the sheet of plastic material being employed in the formation of a plastic bag 10.

In the formation of the bag 10, a closure K is inserted into the tubular body 11 before this tube has been converted into a bag 10 and pressure is applied through a Wall of said tube against said closure particularly in the areas of the glue spots 29 so that said bag wall is pressed against said glue spots causing a substantial degree of adhesion between said spots and the inner surface of the wall of said tube. The closure K is thus applied to the inner surface of a tube 11 in such a location therein that when said tube is converted into the bag 10 by sealing transversely the lower edge of said bag, filling said bag with a fluent product 17 then forming a seal 16 at the upper end of said bag, said closure K will be located entirely within said bag, just beneath seal 16, and spaced inwardly from the area of said seal..

When the time comes to open the bag 10, this is preferably done by application thereto of a pair of scissors in snipping the seal 16 from the upper end of the bag so as to completely open the bag at this end. This is made possible by closure K being spaced inwardly from said seal. This permits removal of a substantial portion of the contents of the bag thereby producing an unoccupied portion of the bag and making the closure K accessible so that it may be readily pulled free of the adhesion produced between the spots 29 and the inner surface of the bag. The closure K is thus available for use in reclosing the upper neck portion of bag 10 as shown in FIGURE 3. This is done by manually bunching together the neck portion of the bag and possibly twisting the same after which the closure K is applied to the twisted neck of the bag in such a manner as to spring apart the jaws 28 of the closure causing these to pass around the bag neck and snap together with the latter trapped in aperture 26 as shown in FIGURE 3.

I claim:

1. A pillow type bag comprising a tube of flexible thin sheet plastic material such as polyethylene or the like, said tube being sealed closed at one end; and

a reclosure device located entirely inside said bag and adhesively fastened to the inner surface of said bag material near the other end of said bag, but spaced inwardly therefrom, whereby,

after a loose product has been delivered into said bag,

said other end of said bag extends endwise beyond said closure permitting it to be closed by heat sealing and then subsequently opened for removing a portion of said product, said reclosure device thus being rendered available for separation from said bag for use in reclosing the bag to keep fresh the balance of said product in said bag.

2. A bag as recited in claim 1 wherein said reclosure device comprises a stitf but flexible thin sheet bag closure of polystyrene or the like having a bag closing aperture formed therein inwardly from an edge of said closure, access to which aperture is had through a narrow slit in said edge, whereby the neck of said bag may be introduced through said slit into said aperture and trapped in the latter to close the neck of said bag.

3. A packaging facility for a quantity of dry fluent product said facility comprising a tube of flexible thin sheet plastic material such as polyethylene or the like, a transverse seal closing the lower end of said tube so as to support said quantity of product delivered into said tube,

a reclosure device located entirely inside said bag and adhesively fastened to the inner surface of said bag material near but spaced inwardly from the other end of said bag, and

a seal closing said other end of said bag whereby said closure is trapped within said bag and retained therein in a position close to the latter end of said bag so that when said latter end of said bag is eventually opened to secure access to said product, access is also had to said closure whereby the latter may be removed from its attachment to the inner surface of said bag material and employed to reclose said bag after a portion of said product has been removed therefrom.

4. A bag as recited in claim 3 wherein said reclosure device comprises a stiff but flexible thin sheet bag closure of polystyrene or the like having a bag closing aperture formed therein inwardly from an edge of said closure, access to which aperture is had through a narrow slit in said edge, whereby the neck of said bag may be introduced through said slit into said aperture and trapped in the latter to close the neck of said bag.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,233,821 2/1966 Ehlers 229-66 DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

